I think reading music is important to a degree.
Mainly because I think scales and arpeggios are important and I think reading helps you to understand what's happening with sharps, flats, clefs and allows you to more easily transpose and play complicated pieces.
Like if I'm playing a B flat trumpet with a piano I can just add two sharps and take it up a tone.
And while people who play by ear can sound amazing and seem creatively unstifled, I often find they can only do what they do in a few different keys and that is stifling.
I get sick of playing everything in sharps for guitarists. :-)
Mainly because I think scales and arpeggios are important and I think reading helps you to understand what's happening with sharps, flats, clefs and allows you to more easily transpose and play complicated pieces.
Like if I'm playing a B flat trumpet with a piano I can just add two sharps and take it up a tone.
And while people who play by ear can sound amazing and seem creatively unstifled, I often find they can only do what they do in a few different keys and that is stifling.
I get sick of playing everything in sharps for guitarists. :-)